How glad are we to see 2017 come to a close? VERY GLAD. This year was bad on every level. There was Donald Trump. I got in a car accident in April. I had surgery in August. Donald Trump. My favorite cat started having seizures out of nowhere and died. Puerto Rico got obliterated.

Donald Trump.

The year’s only redeeming qualities were my beloved Nashville Predators making it all the way to the Stanley Cup finals in June and the solar eclipse in August. A Stanley Cup Final was sort of on my bucket list, so I was thrilled when the Preds pulled off a miracle and went to their first-ever finals. We lost to the Penguins but honestly, it was so exciting to see this city turn out for their hockey team that I almost didn’t care.

The eclipse happened a couple days after my surgery and, being late August, it was a bazillion degrees outside. I toddled outside and sat on my front porch waiting for totality. First the birds stopped singing and then, as we hit totality, the streetlights suddenly came on. The funniest thing was when the sun came back: they’re building new houses both behind and across the street from us, and when the sun came back, all the construction workers cheered and then, without skipping a beat, resumed their interminable hammering. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

And that’s something else that sucked: Nashville’s growth has metastasized like a tumor. They’re building what we call “tall skinnies” everywhere, which are 3-story houses crammed onto tiny lots. We have two of these obnoxious towers behind us now, and what was once a privacy fence has now been rendered useless. This city is no longer livable. The “big city with a small town feel” was always Nashville’s unofficial motto but nowadays it’s just one long-assed traffic jam, overpriced housing, and woo girls on pedal taverns (how did Nashville become ground zero for bachelorette parties? I have no clue.)

And then of course there’s Donald Trump. Where to begin with this guy? I just can’t. Everything he touches turns to shit, it’s his own reverse Midas touch. I can’t even enjoy watching the Republican Party swirl the drain as he drags them into supporting pedophiles and neo-Nazis. This has been the least fun political death watch ever. One cherished institution after another has fallen under the wheels of the greed bus. Goodbye, free and open internet. Farewell, Children’s Health Insurance Program. Ta-ta, healthcare. Next on the chopping block? Medicare and Social Security, you can bank on it. It’s too depressing for words. I don’t even know if I can do a New Year’s Burn List this year, I don’t want to put the neighborhood at risk.

I can only hope that 2018 will be better. And 2017? All I can say to you is, fuck you.

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18 responses to “DIAF, 2017”

Let us together toast to a brighter New Year. I had a difficult year myself. The only thing that kept me strong was my connection to my family and my community.

Happy New Year to you, Beale, and to all of your readers. Life is spirit. The human spirit is resilient and powerful. We shine forth in beauty. We light the path. We offer our help to those who are less fortunate. And we always go back for our wounded.

There is so much at stake. It is all so terribly important. And we love and need each other so desperately.

People who were thrilled to elect this fucking abomination of a government are, in some cases, STILL thrilled. A lot of them, however, have begun to understand that the boat that we are all in is leaking.

I also had surgery, didn’t solve my hand & wrist pain/articulation problems, but it helped. Not sure what’s next. Missed the totality–but got to see a lot of idiots permanently damaging their eyesight.

Within the last 4 days I popped something important in my foot, ankle–hurts like hell and is not going to resolve itself, I think; had my washing machine shit the bed; my hairy roommate got diarreah; we got three FEET of snow in about 8 hours AND it’s 6 degrees out, as I write this.

At this point I don’t just want 2018. I want it in a different body and in a different place.

I agree, watching the GOP go down in flames is not as gratifying as it would be if nature wasn’t dying before our very eyes, if fear and uncertainty weren’t giving us nightmares. But for me one of the worst parts of 2017 and the dawn of the Trump era is what it’s done to my friendships.

Like you, Ms. Beale, I live in a red state and it’s always been a bit awkward, to say the least. But I learned to pick my battles, and to accept people for what they are, and I agreed to be the “token California Hippie LIberal” around our little circle of friends. But this time it’s different. The hatred and animosity and mistrust between right and left is off the charts. I have started to dislike some people. I avoid them. I judge them. Even people who will privately suggest they aren’t comfortable with Trump, I judge them too because they are hypocrites – too afraid to stand up to what I perceive is a threat at least as great as Hitler, pre WW2. (Hitler didn’t have nukes).

Have you seen the photographs of the anti-Nazi marches in the early thirties? The crowds were HUGE. That tells me that even though there are an awful lot of us, the worst can still happen. Even with Mueller and the FBI. Even with the courts, congress….our system of checks and balances is more strained than ever, and I am full of despair. And lonely, to boot.

Oh, Dear, Ms. Beale – so sorry to hear about our accident, surgery, and your beloved kitty. Also, too, democommie and Flying Junior. My year wasn’t all that swell, either. To all of you Beales & Bealettes, a toast to a better year in 2018~

2017 was pretty good for me. Business has been steady as construction had another nice year. Nashville in particular has been good business as we have 5 hotel projects either in design or under construction in the Metro area. Kids are doing well and my wife’s new business had a solid first year and looks like only good times ahead for her. Year ended with a nice tax cut for me as well.